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Telling Tales

Last summer I had an amazing dream about my mom. It was only the second time since she died that this has happened. However, this was the first time she talked to me. It was vivid and cloudy, fast and slow and she told me a lot of things. Some I didn’t know, like how happy she was and others I knew, but will choose to keep private.

Ask Ken Beck

Dear Ken: What is Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls Wilder on “Little House on the Prairie,” been doing?

Gilbert, 45, recently released her autobiography, “Prairie Tale: A Memoir.” And from mid-September to mid-October, she portrayed Ma in the musical adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novel, “Little House on the Prairie, the Musical,” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. The play is touring nationally. She has been married to actor Bruce Boxleitner since 1995 and has two sons and two stepsons. You might enjoy her Web site, www.gilbertboxleitner.com.

The anticipation of Veterans Day, for those who served our great nation, is getting closer. Our veterans have accomplished much, while many of us feel we haven’t done enough, that we can’t compare with men and women who enlisted and fought for freedom.

However, we do have the opportunity to honor and support our veterans. Each year Wilson County crowds grow larger as we stand among the mass of uniformed men and women. In 2007, a young man from Watertown, stepped forward to conclude the Veterans Day ceremony by playing “Taps.”

Column

Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on Nov. 11, 1918.

In legislation that was passed in 1938, Nov. 11 was "dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'" As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.

General News

Wilson County will have to wait until next year for its chance at trying the alleged “Wooded Rapist.”

A motions hearing was held in the case against suspect Robert Jason Burdick on Monday in Wilson County Criminal Court Judge David Durham’s courtroom. Burdick was not present for the hearing, remaining in jail in Davidson County.

The Capitol Theater, located just off the west side of the historic Lebanon Public Square, has been several different things since it closed in 1978 including a furniture consignment store, but has mostly it has stayed vacant.

Not anymore. The building’s new owners intend to bring it back to its heyday.

Mt. Juliet High graduate Barry “Butch” Wilmore became the first Wilson Countian in space Monday afternoon with the near-perfect launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from Pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center.

Wilmore serves as the pilot of the STS-129 mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff was televised live on HDNet.

Though their numbers are rapidly dwindling, the survivors of “the Greatest Generation” walk among us.

In their 80s or older, they live peaceful lives, but they realize far more than most that the peace Americans enjoy at home came at a fearful and costly price. Many of them went to war and were eyewitnesses to the horror of battle. Some continue to wear the scars that may be hidden by clothing or carry even deeper wounds invisible that pain heart and mind.